Tom Kelecy (Boeing LTS), Ray Deiotte (Boeing LTS), John Africano (Boeing LTS), Gene Stansbery (NASA JSC-KX) Tim Payne (Air Force Space Command)
Keywords: Orbital Debris
Abstract:
A population of recently discovered deep space objects is thought to be debris having origins from sources in the geosynchronous orbit (GEO) belt. Observations have been presented indicating that these objects have a high area-to-mass (A/M) ratio (1s to 10s of m2/kg), and thus would explain the observed migration of eccentricity (0.1-0.6) and inclination that distinguishes their orbital characteristics. There is a heightened interest in the international community due to the large number and small size of these objects, as they pose a hazard to active satellites operating in the vicinity of the GEO belt.
Observational coverage of these objects has been limited by the orbital phasing and the locations of the tracking sites. Boeing, NASA and the U.S. Air Force Space Command have embarked on a collaborative effort with the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee (IADC) to track selected high A/m of this population to more accurately characterize their orbits and orbit histories. Space Command tracking assets were tasked to provide angles measurements for representative set of 6 high A/m objects, and the data were used to establish a process for doing orbit updates that would accommodate a priori two-line element sets that will eventually be provided by the IADC.
This paper presents the development and validation of the data processing and orbit update implementation, and preliminary analysis results of the high A/m class of objects. Limitations in the observational geometry, along with the apparent time variations in the nominal A/m values of some of the objects, pose a challenge for the orbit prediction. The ultimate goal is to establish a process that will provide long-term, relatively accurate orbital histories for these high A/m objects derived from a global set of observation metrics, and to capture photometric measurements when possible that will support characterization of these objects.
Date of Conference: September 10-14, 2006
Track: Orbital Debris